Meade®
Smart Drive™
Permanent Periodic Error
Correction (PPEC) for Meade LX200GPS
Telescopes
Included as standard equipment
with all Meade LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain
telescopes, and with the #1664 and
#1697 drive systems of Meade
apochromatic refractors as well, the
Smart Drive permits a professional
level of drive-rate precision. No
longer are large systems required,
worm gear |
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when smaller gears coupled to Smart
Drive software can achieve periodic
errors of 5 arc secs or less-an
observatory standard of precision.
All worm/worm-gear combinations,
no matter how well made, have minor
inaccuracies that manifest
themselves as periodic errors in the
telescope tracking rate, with
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the period dependent on the worm's
rate of rotation. To program the
Smart Drive the observer guides on
an object visually, making
corrections with the handbox
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The software then remembers these
keystrokes, stores them in memory,
and in the future automatically
compensates for the periodic errors
of the gear system.
Smart Drive user programming is
stored in the telescope's computer
memory forever, independently of any
power source, unlike other periodic
error correctors that must be
reprogrammed each time you use the
system. The Smart Drive can be
erased, updated, or even averaged
with future programmings at the
user's option.
The significant value of the
Smart Drive is immediately
appreciated during long-exposure
astrophotography, where the
resultant low periodic error of the
system enables relaxed guiding with
a minimum of handbox corrections. In
CCD imaging, where 2- to 3-minute
exposures of deep-space objects are
often all that is required for
stunning results, the Smart Drive
often permits imaging without any
guiding requirements at all.
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